Matt Reeves Hired To Basically Remake They Live

Back in October, when news regarding a remake of John Carpenter's They Live was already prevalent, producer Eric Newman was quoted saying that the updated version of the film wouldn't contain the special sunglasses that let the hero, played by 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper in the original, see aliens walking among us. Now Universal is either planning to make the same movie twice, or Matt Reeves has just been hired to direct the They Live remake.

Deadline is reporting that the studio has hired the Let Me In director to adapt and direct 8 O’Clock in the Morning, the short story by Ray Nelson that inspired the 1988 Carpenter film. In the story, a man wakes up and comes to the realization that our society has been infected and is being controlled by aliens. The article says that the project is not being considered a remake, but Newman and Marc Abraham (who mentioned the They Live remake while I was on a set visit for The Thing) are signed on as producers. Speaking about the project, Reeves said

"I saw an opportunity to do a movie that was very point-of-view driven, a psychological science fiction thriller that explores this guy’s nightmare. "There could be a desperate love story at the center of this. Carpenter took a satirical view of the material and the larger political implication that we’re being controlled. I am very drawn to the emotional side, the nightmare experience with the paranoia of Invasion of the Body Snatchers or a Roman Polanski-style film."

Considering how sick of remakes everybody is, this is actually a pretty clever move by Universal. It's like adapting a more faithful version of Roderick Thorp's Nothing Lasts Forever and then saying that it's not a remake of Die Hard. They probably won't end up titling it They Live - even for brand recognition purposes - but know that when you put down your $8 that it's basically what you'll be getting.